Soda Drinks are Harming Your Brain, and Diet Soda is Worse

The numbers are in and they don't look promising. In 2016, Americans had a party with 11 million tons of sugar. Yep, according to the US Department of Agriculture, that's how much sugar we consumed that year via “sports drinks” and sodas.

New research is suggesting that one molecule of sugar, Fructose, might be damaging our brains. A new study from Framingham Heart Study (FHS) suggests that people who consume accelerated amounts of Fructose, which is the core ingredient in High Fructose Corn Syrup, my suffer from poorer memories and smaller overall brain volumes.

In case you are curious, fructose is the sweet molecule of sugar. And considered the most damaging. Some people opt to eat more starchy foods, such as rice and potatoes because those are primarily made up of another sugar molecule, glucose. Understanding the differences in sugar molecules could be life changing for many people.

Researchers found that people who drink sugary beverages frequently are more likely to have poorer memory, smaller overall brain volume, and a significantly smaller hippocampus. A follow-up study found that people who drank diet soda daily were almost three times as likely to develop stroke and dementia when compared to those who did not.

You can’t win. It almost feels as thought the only answer is to eat and drink healthy.